In the field of antenna-based communication systems, there is an ongoing effort to provide ever-greater amounts of communication bandwidth to selected coverage areas. In this regard, existing communication systems often employ large antenna farms which may include multiple fixed antenna beams that are physically steered by reflector gimbals. Unfortunately, such systems can provide limited flexibility in directing the fixed antenna beams to desired coverage areas.
Other systems employ beam shaping techniques to optimize beam coverage over particular regions while minimizing beam emissions elsewhere. In one approach, analog beamforming techniques may be used in phased array antenna systems having limited numbers of antenna beams with high bandwidth provided by each beam. Other approaches may employ digital beamforming at each transmit or receive element of a phased array antenna system, thereby requiring numerous A/D and D/A converters and significant digital processing capacity.
In the case of analog beamforming, traditional phased array designs often focus on the integration of active electronics in a high density, low cost manner. However, such designs generally do not optimize cost and performance with regard to other considerations such as radiation shielding and thermal transport.
As set forth above, these various prior approaches fail to provide a desirable degree of end-to-end system design flexibility at moderate cost. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved approach to phased array antenna beamforming that provides a high degree of flexibility without excessive cost.